Contrary to a narrative that young people are apathetic or lazy or too busy texting to care about human rights, in fact young people are at the helm of the movement for justice for all people. I, for one, can't wait to see what they pull off in 2015.

It’s the end of the year, and thus the perfect time to reflect on the ways in which young people in 2014 led the charge for change in the human rights and justice movements.

1. Young people were at the forefront of racial justice activism in 2014. Throughout the history of this country, Black men have been killed at the hands of police officers, often while unarmed, in the name of “safety.” Safety for whom, we don’t know. But what made 2014 different was not the brutality of these murders. Nor was it the unwillingness of grand juries to indict in high-profile cases like the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner at the hands of law enforcement. What made this year different was a grassroots movement, largely led by youth organizers, flooding the streets in Ferguson, conducting die-ins in New York City, shutting down intersections in Washington, D.C., blockading freeways in Oakland, and walking out of classrooms around the country. Young people of color continue to be active leaders and participants in this work to declare that Black lives matter and that police violence must end.

2. Malala Yousafzai became the youngest recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize. Yousafzai, a Pakistani advocate for women and girls and especially access to education, was at age 17 awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for her activism, making her the youngest recipient ever. She began campaigning for education for girls at age 11, and first drew international attention after Taliban fighters shot her in the head. This year Yousafzai traveled to Nigeria, issuing an appeal for increased funding for education after more than 200 girls were abducted from a school by Boko Haram terrorists. Yousafzai’s bravery and moral clarity serve as inspiration to young feminist activists around the world.

3. United We Dream and immigrant youth demanded that the president issue an executive order on immigration. After foot-dragging that extended past the November elections, President Obama made good on a promise to issue an executive order extending relief to undocumented immigrants. The order protects up to five million undocumented residents, and especially the parents of children who have citizenship, as well as the parents of DREAMers brought to the country as children. As with other controversial executive actions—notably one in which the president refused to extend religious discrimination into an executive order barring employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation by federal contractors—Obama was compelled to act because a left flank used direct action to inject clear moral analysis into the debate. Leading that flank was United We Dream, an immigrant youth-led organization that, among other direct actions, led activists to get arrested outside the office of Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV). In July, activists from the group were escorted out of the Netroots Nation conference while interrupting a speech by Vice President Joe Biden with the chant “stop deporting our families”; after a pause, the vice president encouraged the audience to applaud them.

4. With one mattress, Emma Sulkowicz turned campus sexual assault into a striking piece of performance art. Sulkowicz, a visual arts major at Columbia University, turned her rape on campus into an unavoidable activist conversation with a piece titled “Carry That Weight,” in which she carried a twin-size dorm mattress around campus to draw attention the fact that her rapist, a fellow student, had not been expelled. Her piece inspired a Carry That Weight Day of Action on more than 100 campuses, with thousands of students carrying mattresses to call for reforms to the way colleges address sexual assault.

5. Know Your IX kept leading a grassroots movement to demand accountability on campus sexual assault. There is no one better to organize against oppression and injustice than those most directly affected, and the growing organization Know Your IX—a reference to Title IX, under which educational institutions receiving federal funding must address sexual assault as a civil rights obligation—does just that. The survivor-led and student-driven group, founded last year, remained at the forefront of efforts to inform students who have been sexually assaulted of their rights and demand that the Department of Education improve its enforcement of the law. These efforts played a clear role in a new national dialogue about campus sexual assault and the unveiling of the It’s On Us campaign by the Obama administration in September.

6. Young people participated in and led abortion speak-outs. 2014 continued to be a challenging year for abortion rights in the legislatures; as of December 1, states had enacted 23 new restrictions on abortion access. However, advocates are actively working to create culture change around abortion and break stigma through storytelling. Young people were among the 100 individuals participating in the first-ever live-streamed abortion speak-out hosted by the 1 in 3 Campaign, which is run by Advocates for Youth. Abortion speak-outs also occurred during in-person events on college campuses, including the University of Michigan, the University of Central Michigan, and the University of Central Florida, where hundreds attended.

7. Emily Letts filmed and shared her abortion, demystifying the process. Letts, a counselor at Cherry Hill Women’s Center in New Jersey, filmed her abortion and shared the video online, an act that showed a common medical procedure as it truly is. “I could have taken the pill, but I wanted to do the one that women were most afraid of,” she toldCosmopolitan. “I wanted to show it wasn’t scary—and that there is such a thing as a positive abortion story.” The video has been watched more than a million times.

8. Alex, an 8-year-old-boy, rapped about coming out as transgender to his mom. The confluence of rampant discrimination and inadequate legal protections for transgender people hits youth particularly hard; more than half of transgender youth will attempt suicide by age 20. But in one short viral video released by Camp Aranu’tiq, a camp for transgender youth, an 8-year-old boy named Alex seized a difficult narrative and turned it into a source for hope. His rap details his positive story of coming out as transgender to his mom, and ends with a call that “We all deserve freedom, love, and respect!”

9. Pro-choice students at Catholic-affiliated universities fought back against restrictions on reproductive and sexual rights, and free speech. One of the primary faces of today’s pro-discrimination movement is the religiously affiliated university. Playing a prominent role among those are Catholic-affiliated colleges attempting to hold a line for the archconservative U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. In 2014, students and their allies at these institutions fought back. In Indiana, three Notre Dame students using the pseudonyms Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2, and Jane Doe 3 joined a brief opposing their university’s lawsuit against the birth control benefit. In the District of Columbia, students from the group H*yas for Choice were removed by campus police twice this year for tabling in peaceful protest of the Vatican’s stance on reproductive rights and LGBTQ rights; these efforts have led the group to grow in popularity and size.

10. A Florida youth council fought for access to comprehensive sexual education, and won. The Broward County Youth Council, a leadership group of ten high school, college, and graduate students, fought long and hard to have the Broward County school board adopt comprehensive sexual education standards, and that fight culminated in 2014 with a big win. Students in the county will now receive medically accurate, LGBTQ-inclusive sexual education. As local student Keyanna Suarez told CBS Miami after the vote, “There’s not gonna be a taboo about anything. Everyone’s gonna be able to open up, ask questions, and get the info they need to make these decisions because some parents aren’t giving them the education at home.” Broward County is the sixth largest public school system in the country.

11. Colorado high school students walked out of class to protest a proposal to downplay the role of protest in U.S. history. In September, hundreds of high school students in the Denver area walked out of their classrooms in protest of a proposal to focus history curricula on topics that promote respect for authority. “I don’t think my education should be censored,” Tori Leu, a student who protested at Ralston Valley High School told the Guardian. “We should be able to know what happened in our past.” One month later, the Jefferson County School Board passed a compromise proposal that essentially overruled the proposed change.

12. The Harry Potter Alliance tackled income inequality with creativity. The alliance, which engages Harry Potter fans, used the recent success of The Hunger Games to engage young people in income inequality activism. The Odds in Our Favor campaign uses the #MyHungerGames hashtag to encourage people to share their personal stories about class-based injustice. The organization has also compiled pictures of youth using the story’s three-finger salute to protest income inequality.

Baker’s dozen bonus: RH Reality Check continued to foster and share the voices of young people on the important issues of sexual and reproductive rights, health, and justice. As a proud servant leader of the RH Reality Check young writers program, I would be remiss not to mention the commitment of this publication to young people. It was on full display in 2014.

In July, Associate Editor Regina Mahone traveled to Detroit to attend the Youth Sexuality Media Forum; you can read her resulting report on how the media can better cover youth sexuality here. President and Editor in Chief Jodi Jacobson spoke to 19 young reproductive rights activists from around the world at a Youth Champions Initiative in Palo Alto, and Senior Legal Analyst Imani Gandy and Investigative Fellow Zoe Greenberg attended in-person as well; you can read Imani and Zoe’s fantastic conversation with four of the youth champions here.

The participants in our young writers program receive mentoring, intensive coaching, and editorial support beyond the bounds of what traditional freelance writers receive, and publish pieces on RH Reality Check at a competitive rate. What follows is just a small sample of what those participants published this year. Emily Spangler, a high school student in Illinois, wrote about how other young women can get involved in politics; Marcus Lee, a student at Morehouse College, discussed ways men can embrace a culture of consent; Erin McKelle, a student at Ohio University, took a look at the consequences of young people not voting; Lizzie Fierro, a high school student in Texas, spelled out how we can combat sexism in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects; and Briana Dixon, a student at Spelman College, took a nuanced look at the news of a couple who sued a sperm bank after mistakenly receiving a Black sperm donor. (Insert group hug!)

Contrary to a narrative that young people are apathetic or lazy or too busy texting to care about human rights, in fact young people are at the helm of the movement for justice for all people. I, for one, can’t wait to see what they pull off in 2015.

Addressing Kathleen Kuehnast, director of the Gender and Peacebuilding Center of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), at an April 3 hearing in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Weber seemed unimpressed by her account of the institute’s training for local community leaders. “Do you teach in that process a respect for the sanctity of life?” the congressman asked.

The term “sanctity of life” is commonly used by anti-choice activists as a rationale for opposing abortion.

As Kuehnast began explaining that she is personally not a trainer, Weber interrupted.

“I mean, if you’re gonna have peace, isn’t the ultimate goal not to kill somebody else?” he asked. “That’s not very peaceful.”

In the House of Representatives these days, the subject of abortion is introduced in the most unlikely contexts.

The hearing was called by committee chair Edward R. Royce (R-CA), just hours before the committee marked up HR 3583, the Malala Yousafzai Scholarship Act, named for the young woman and Nobel laureate who survived a devastating shooting in Pakistan by a Taliban gunman in retaliation for her activism on behalf of education for girls. The bill would increase the number of needs-based college-level scholarships for Pakistani students administered by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which currently average about 180 per year, and require that half of such aid go to women.

Though not specifically about the USAID scholarship program, the hearing seemed premised to provide a rationale for the bill that might placate Tea Party-allied members of Congress, who are typically unenthusiastic about foreign aid, by framing the education of women as critical to combating terrorism promulgated by Islamic extremists.

“[W]omen’s central role in families and communities makes them uniquely positioned to intervene and stop the radicalization of their children,” Royce said in his opening statement. “Mothers are most likely to spot the signs that something is off. Simply put, if angry young men are to be stopped before they strap on a suicide vest, women will be key.”

Joining Kuehnast on the witness panel were Hedieh Mirahmadi, president of the World Organization for Resource Development and Education, and Humera Khan, executive director of Muflehun, an American Muslim think tank with a mission of preventing violent extremism.

Khan noted women’s low literacy rates in Pakistan (around 60 percent nationwide) and Afghanistan (estimated at 12.6 percent) as an impediment to their full participation in countering violent extremism (CVE) programs, but also asserted that men must be engaged in creating an environment that makes women’s education possible. She told of how, without her father’s approval, her own education would have been impossible, and highlighted the role of Malala Yousafzai’s father in the young woman’s education activism. “These are patriarchal societies,” she reminded committee members.

Mirahmadi emphasized what she saw as the crucial role of mainstream religious institutions and clerics in combating the influence of violent extremists. If religion was the problem, she said, it was also “the antidote.” The United States, however, she contended, was a bit hamstrung in addressing that need because, she said, “the U.S. doesn’t do religion” in its development programs.

Weber took exception to Mirahmadi’s comments.

“You said … that some of the extremists use religion, and if I’ve got it down correctly, you say that the anecdote [sic] is religion, and then you follow that with, the problem is that the United States doesn’t use religion,” Weber said. “Dear God, what are we doing?”

“If the anecdote [sic] is religion, what does that look like?” he continued. “You said that the United States doesn’t use religion. Expound on that. Would you prefer—expound on that.”

“No,” Mirahmadi replied, “I have no intention of changing the Constitution. England does religion, but the—”

Weber interrupted her. “Well, the Constitution doesn’t prevent us from using religion,” he said. “Let me just make sure we get that out there.”

(The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy with two official religious bodies, the Church of England and the Church of Scotland. In the United States, the First Amendment to the Constitution forbids Congress from making laws “respecting an establishment of religion.”)

Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) turned the conversation back to the realm of the practical, noting that many extremist groups provide needed services to poverty-stricken populations, a means of gathering support. He asked the panel if any had seen effective alternatives available to the people who needed the services.

The replies were not encouraging: Mirahmadi said she had seen none. Khan explained that there were legal problems for the United States and other Western non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in providing such services, because if it turned out that a single member of family receiving such aid were found to be involved in extremist activities, the NGO could be charged with “providing material support to terrorists.”

Instead of funding outside NGOs to create programs designed to counter the services provided by unsavory groups, Khan said, it was better to fund and empower local organizations. “If you ask communities how to solve their own problems,” she said, “they come up with answers.”

The congressman then asked how to empower women as leaders in countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan.

By “making sure they’re on the guest list” when the United States and international bodies are convening conferences and events, Mirahmadi said. “[W]hen we help elevate their profile and other countries help elevate their profile, they become players,” she added.

Before the hearing closed, Khan reminded the committee of the primary reason for supporting women’s education around the world. “Education is a human right for all,” she said.

The Malala Yousafzai Scholarship bill was later passed by the committee. It has not yet been scheduled for a vote on the House floor. A Senate version, S. 120, was introduced by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) in January, and has seen no further action. The bill-tracking website GovTrack.us rates its chances of enactment at 24 percent.

2013 not only saw a number of pro-choice successes but also countless hard-working activists and allies who, against tremendous odds, put in time and energy to advance reproductive rights and health and ensure the safety of women and girls of all backgrounds.

2013 not only saw a number of pro-choice successes but also countless hard-working activists and allies who, against tremendous odds, put in time and energy to advance reproductive rights and health and ensure the safety of women and girls of all backgrounds. We salute these heroes for all that they do each and every day to make certain that women and their families have the resources they need to live happy, healthy lives. Here is a far from comprehensive list of some of those brave women and men.

Legislators Who Walk the Talk

Nina Turner: Turner is not just a courageous pro-choice lawmaker running for Ohio secretary of state—she’s also hilarious. She wore a t-shirt suggesting “GOP” should really stand for “Get Out of My Panties” when her conservative colleagues were fighting for extreme restrictions on abortion. And she’s introduced some amazing taste-of-their-own-medicine bills that use absurdist role reversal to expose right-wing hypocrisy. Ohio lawmakers think welfare recipients need to be drug-tested before they get taxpayers’ money? Well, then so should Ohio lawmakers. Legislators concern-trolling about how women seeking abortions don’t know what’s good for them? Good point, says Turner—taking Viagra is a serious reproductive decision too (priapism is no joke!), so we should require “informed consent,” including psychological testing, for the men who want the drug. Just to, y’know, make sure they know all their options (celibacy included!). Bravo, Nina. —Emily Crockett

Leticia Van de Putte: “At what point must a female senator raise her hand or her voice to be recognized over her male colleagues?” Texas state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte’s pointed question to Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, asked in the final minutes of Sen. Wendy Davis’ 13-hour filibuster against Texas’ omnibus abortion bill, sent the reproductive rights supporters who were packed into the state senate gallery into an uproar. Anti-choice legislators were unable to hear each other to take a vote, and the bill died at midnight. It has become Van de Putte’s most publicized moment from a hard-fought summer at the state capitol, but the senator—a pharmacist by profession—has a long record of standing up for reproductive rights, and this winter announced a bid for Dewhurst’s office, showing that she’s nowhere close to backing down. —Andrea Grimes

Wendy Davis:State Sen. Wendy Davis’ epic 13-hour filibuster against Texas’ omnibus anti-abortion bill shot her into the national political spotlight this summer, as she forced Republican Gov. Rick Perry to call a third special legislative session in order to force an unprecedented package of abortion restrictions into law. A self-made woman who went from single mom to Harvard Law grad to legislator, Davis has invigorated the state’s Democratic party in her bid for the governorship. —Andrea Grimes

Kirsten Gillibrand: If forced to describe U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) in a single word, “persistent” might be the first to come to mind. In 2013, the pro-choice lawmaker put her legendary tenacity in the service of survivors of rape and sexual assault in the military, specifically those who suffered at the hands of the comrades in arms. Amid a torrent of news reports highlighting sexual crimes conducted against service members, often by fellow members of higher rank, leaders of each branch of the armed forces, together with the joint chiefs of staff, found themselves facing a withering barrage of questions from members of the Senate Armed Services Committee in June, just after the Pentagon released its latest yearly estimate of “unwanted sexual contact” experienced by those serving in the military: 26,000. In the face of opposition from Pentagon brass and committee leaders, Gillibrand put forward a measure that would remove the adjudication of sexual assault and other serious crimes from the chain of command, which she says would create a more just process for those bringing charges, which would also put other predators on notice. When Committee Chairman Carl Levin declined to include the measure in his mark-up of the annual defense authorization, Gillibrand, undeterred, continued to buttonhole colleagues so she could add it as an amendment in a floor vote. Pundits posited that she would never get the number of supporters she’d need to win a vote, and then she did—even winning over such unlikely Republican allies as Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rand Paul (R-KY). When an unrelated procedural skirmish between Republicans and Democrats prevented that vote, Gillibrand began pushing for a stand-alone vote on her Military Justice Improvement Act, which, according to sources, will likely take place when Congress returns after the holiday recess. Regardless of the outcome, Gillibrand succeeded in keeping a light on the issue, bringing the stories of survivors into public view—and showing her prowess in outmaneuvering some very powerful men. —Adele Stan

Gretchen Whitmer: When Michigan Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer spoke on the floor against the state’s newly passed “rape insurance” bill, she didn’t know she was going to end up sharing her deeply personal story about being raped 20 years ago. But she says she looked at her colleagues, who had never had a committee hearing on the bill or heard from women or doctors, and knew that “they never thought for a second who this was going to impact.” Her voice shaking with emotion, she told her fellow legislators, “I think you need to see the face of the women you are impacting by this vote today.” No one supporting the bill acknowledged her in their remarks, and the measure passed, banning insurance coverage of abortion and forcing women to buy a separate rider for it even if they are raped. But Whitmer’s courage is an inspiration to women in Michigan and across the country whose voices are silenced in these debates. —Emily Crockett

Advocates Who Never Give Up

Tanya Fields: Food justice activist Tanya Fields is committed to improving the lives not just of her children but of her entire community in the Bronx. She launched her own event on the local food movement after she was disinvited from a TEDxManhattan event called “Changing The Way We Eat” (and then later re-invited) earlier this year. Her work at the BLK Projek and her role speaking “for women who feel like they don’t necessarily have a voice” is critical, especially as it relates to creating “economic development opportunities for marginalized women and youth.” In a recent interview with RH Reality Check, Fields spoke candidly about how when “we talk about reproductive rights and reproductive justice … we don’t talk about the right of a woman to carry her baby to full term and to receive the types of things that she would need to have a successful birth.” Fields reminds us that it’s long past time we start talking about the women who do not feel like they have a choice, and how we can help them. —Regina Mahone

Tiana Parker: The constant policing of the bodies of girls and women of color makes it tough for some to stand up for who they are. Parker was sent home from her Tulsa, Oklahoma, school earlier this year because of her dreadlocks. Her bravery, and the support of her family to speak out about the right to be yourself and that Black natural hair is beautiful, is an inspiring message for all of us. —Wagatwe Wanjuki

Rev. William Barber II: It wasn’t long after a new class of lawmakers took their seats in the North Carolina legislature this year that a barrage of harmful legislation began to rain down on citizens. Voting rights rolled back, unemployment benefits curtailed, health-care expansion halted, education underfunded, and reproductive rights impeded. The Tea Party-allied majority even repealed the state’s Racial Justice Act. In response to these attacks on ordinary North Carolinians, Rev. William Barber, president of the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), forged an extraordinary coalition of activists who staged weekly protests at the state capitol building in Raleigh, under the name, “Moral Mondays.” In April, at the start of the protests—at which people would commit civil disobedience by unlawfully entering the capitol building—several hundred people turned out. By July, when the legislature sneaked anti-abortion measures into a bill regulating motorcycle safety, the numbers of protesters were in the thousands. (Protests are set to resume with a major rally on February 8.) Interviewed by Peter Dreier of Moyers & Co., Barber said of his opponents: “The one thing they don’t want to see is us crossing over racial lines and class lines and gender lines and labor lines. When this coalition comes together, you’re going to see a New South.” —Adele Stan

Janet Colm: Colm, who has led a major North Carolina Planned Parenthood office in Chapel Hill for some 30 years, thought long and hard before she decided to get herself arrested as part of the Moral Mondays protests in July. Although she had attended earlier protests, she told the Raleigh News & Observer, it was the legislature’s sneaky passage, in the motorcycle bill, of measures to impede women’s access to abortion that put her “over the edge.” And so it was that Colm, who heretofore couldn’t bear to break a parking rule, according to the Observer, found herself in handcuffs, wearing a pink t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan “Women Are Watching.” —Adele Stan

Madison Kimrey: While we’re cheering on Moral Mondays activists, 12-year-old Madison Kimrey earned a shout-out for a speech she gave in October at one of the protest rallies, at which she slammed Gov. Pat McCrory for his roll-back of voting rights, including the end of pre-registration for teenagers, a mechanism that allowed young people to submit a registration form before their 18th birthday, so that their registration would be automatic once they reached voting age. According to Ashley Alman of the Huffington Post, Kimrey said that when she asked the governor to meet with her, he called her “a prop for liberal groups.” “I am not a prop,” Kimrey said in her speech. “I am part of the new generation of suffragists, and I will not stand silent while laws are passed to reduce the amount of voter turnout by young people in my home state.” —Adele Stan

Julie Burkhart: Burkhart knows anti-choice extremism first hand. Based in Wichita, Kansas, Burkhart worked at the Wichita Women’s Center, a reproductive health-care clinic heavily targeted by Operation Rescue during their 1991 Summer of Mercy clinic siege. Burkhart later worked closely with the late Dr. George Tiller, serving as his clinic’s spokesperson from 2002 to 2006. As executive director of Trust Women, Burkhart has re-opened a clinic in the same space where Tiller’s was located, staring down threats of violence and intimidation by anti-choice extremists in the process. Undeterred, Burkhart and her team at the South Wind Women’s Clinic make sure those who need comprehensive reproductive health care in Wichita and the surrounding area have access to it. —Jessica Mason Pieklo

Malala Yousafzai: After surviving an assassination attempt by the Taliban, Pakistani teenager Yousafzai continues to speak out for equality and education for women and girls. In so doing, she is advancing practical change and inspiring others to do the same. Let’s be real: She should have won the Nobel Peace Prize this year. —Erin Matson

Raquel Batista: While she didn’t win her race for New York City Council, Batista campaigned as a pregnant woman and then a new mom—showing women and girls around the nation that we should believe anything is possible, even when we have a baby bump. She responded to sexism and scorn by working harder to secure elected office to advance a whole range of progressive issues. Thank you, Raquel, for your commitment to breaking barriers! —Erin Matson

Mikki Kendall:Last summer, Kendall started the #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen hashtag on Twitter to spur discussion “between people impacted by the latest bout of problematic behavior from mainstream white feminists.” Her work has spawned a numberof offshoots that were created to support a wide range of communities. Kendall not only encouraged a critical discussion about intersectionality in the feminist movement, she also paved the way for other activists looking to Twitter to find a voice. —Regina Mahone

Melissa Harris-Perry:Last year, Marissa Alexander, a Black mother of three, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot during a disagreement with her abusive husband. In contrast, in July of this year George Zimmerman was acquitted of murder charges in the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin—raising questions about who “stand your ground” laws are most applicable to. During Thanksgiving week last month—when Alexander was released from jail and placed under house arrest, where she will remain until early spring of next year, when her new trial is set to begin—MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry read an open letter to Florida State Attorney Angela Corey, who has been accused of overcharging in the Alexander case. A stalwart supporter of women’s rights, Harris-Perry used her program to call attention to the failure of the justice system to protect victims of intimate partner violence. This represents just one of the many times Harris-Perry has given a voiceto women and girls who are too often treated like they don’t matter. —Regina Mahone

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear: Beshear has become an unlikely health-care hero. As the only governor of a Southern state to both expand Medicaid and set up a state health insurance exchange, the Democrat is showing the rest of the region that the Affordable Care Act can not only work, but is necessary for many Americans. Because Beshear wasn’t OK with one in six Kentucky residents being uninsured, he went over the heads of the Republican-controlled state senate to do something about it. Beshear has been persistent and eloquent in his defense of health care as both a moral and economic issue. —Emily Crockett

Doctors (and Support Staff) We Love

Amy Hagstrom Miller speaks on Maddow.

Amy Hagstrom Miller: The dedicated and fearless CEO of Whole Woman’s Health, a group of comprehensive reproductive health providers in Texas, the Midwest, and the East Coast, Hagstrom Miller has become one of the country’s most powerful voices for reproductive rights. Based in Austin, Hagstrom Miller is fighting on the front lines of the battle for reproductive freedom, ensuring that her clinics’ patients get safe, compassionate abortion care, despite heavy opposition from anti-choice legislators. —Andrea Grimes

Tammi Kromenaker: Despite the radical and unconstitutional anti-choice legislation being passed in her state, Kromenaker has stood up for women’s reproductive rights in North Dakota. As the only abortion provider, Kromenaker has faced a Republican legislature and that has targeted her clinic with laws designed to end safe and legal abortion in the state. —Teddy Wilson

Leroy Carhart: Carhart’s name is on landmark abortion-related federal court cases, but his work is very much on the ground. This year, the documentary After Tillerfollowed the day-to-day lives of the only four providers in the country who openly provide third-trimester abortions, one of whom is Dr. Carhart. He has put his life at risk to continue providing later procedures, traveling across the country to do so, despite threats of violence from anti-choice zealots who would rather see him dead than providing safe, legal abortion care. —Andrea Grimes

Shelley Sella (left) and Susan Robinson.

Shelley Sella and Susan Robinson: Robinson and Sella worked alongside the late Dr. Tiller providing later abortion services for women in Wichita before Tiller’s 2009 murder. Two of the other subjects in After Tiller, the women have continued the work that is Tiller’s legacy, moving to Albuquerque—a city that recently went through a tough battle over a proposed 20-week abortion ban—to work at Southwestern Women’s Options along side Dr. Curtis Boyd. —Teddy Wilson

Willie Parker: An abortion provider from Chicago who regularly travels hundreds of miles throughout the country to provide abortions in communities where access is limited, Parker is also a dedicated reproductive rights activist. This summer, the advocacy group Physicians for Reproductive Health awarded Parker the George Tiller, MD award for his work providing abortions in under-served areas and for “demonstrating leadership and courage.” Parker’s research work has focused on male responsibility in family planning. —Sofia Resnick

Clinic escorts everywhere: It’s absurd that a woman seeking legal medical care—including abortion, family planning advice, and routine gynecological checkups—is often subject to harassment from folks outside a clinic. In this respect, clinic escorts are the caped crusaders, or at least brightly vested volunteers, of the abortion rights movement. They provide calm respite and, at times, physical blockades between patients trying to do what’s best for themselves and rude people (sometimes terrorists) who think they should be in control. They do this in extreme heat and extreme cold. Brava, escorts! —Erin Matson

Clinic staffers everywhere: Every day, doctors, nurses, intake counselors, receptionists, and a variety of office and medical support staff make the fundamental right to self-determination a reality for women seeking abortions. Clinic staffers do this under the threat of violence and, often, the shadow of relentless “pro-life” harassment, screaming, and worse right outside their doors. In providing compassion and care to women with unsustainable or unwanted pregnancies, they are heroes. Safe, accessible abortion saves women’s lives, and it is clinic staffers who make it all possible. —Erin Matson

Groups Fighting for Our Rights

Young Women United, Strong Families New Mexico, and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health:Young Women United, Strong Families New Mexico, and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health were the driving forces behind protecting reproductive rights in Albuquerque after anti-choice activists attempted to pass a city-wide ban on abortion after 20 weeks’ gestation. Their grassroots efforts organized opponents of the ban, and ensured that reproductive health-care decisions remained with women, their families, and their doctors. —Teddy Wilson

Oct 5th immigration reform event in Brownsville, Texas.

Immigration advocates: This year, thousands of DREAMers and immigrant advocates across the country protested, fasted, and got arrested in the name of passing just, comprehensive immigration reform. While Republicans in both Washington, D.C., and statehouses attacked Medicaid spending, decimated family planning funding, and demonized immigrant workers, organizations like the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health fought back, demanding “salud, dignidad, y justicia”—health, dignity, and justice—for immigrant women, and bringing to the forefront some of the most important reproductive justice work happening today. —Jessica Mason Pieklo

Immigration reform protestors being arrested at the nation’s Capitol in Washington, D.C. on October 8, 2013.

The “Orange Army”: When anti-choice Texas legislators pulled a bait-and-switch, proposing an omnibus anti-abortion law after promising no new abortion restrictions in 2013, Texans turned up by the thousands at the state capitol to oppose the unnecessary and restrictive regulations. Clad in orange, ordinary citizens organized a “people’s filibuster,” giving state Sen. Wendy Davis the time she needed to pull off her 13-hour filibuster. They drove in from the Rio Grande Valley, from El Paso and Dallas and East Texas, taking time off work and with kids in tow, packing the state senate and house galleries, cheering through the night to block HB 2. And when the bill passed anyway, after a last-ditch effort from Gov. Rick Perry and his allies, 19,000 of them continued to press state bureaucrats to mitigate the damage done by the new law. They are legion, and they are relentless. —Andrea Grimes

Although many activists are not threatened to the extent that Yousafzai was, it is important to remember that no matter where you come from, how old you are, or what your background is, your voice can have an impact on the world.

Emily Spangler is a 15-year-old high school student and one of RH Reality Check‘s youth voices.

Being a teenager who wants to promote acceptance and equality and change the world is not necessarily easy. It can be quite stressful, especially when the world you see is not going in the direction you would like it to be going in. Still, raising your voice on certain issues is natural for some, like it is for me. I’m an advocate for empowering women to be engaged in the political process and to have their voices heard on issues that affect them. Someday, I want to make a bigger impact on this world and to be elected to public office. But I recognize that for others, activism not only requires courage and sacrifice, but can actually be dangerous.

Under the threat of violence—and even after surviving an assassination attempt—Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai continues to stand up for the rights of girls to education and equality. In so doing, Malala shows us that no matter what age we are or where we come from, we all have the power to use our voices for the issues we care about.

Thank you, Malala.

On October 9, 2012, Yousafzai was shot in the head. The Taliban targeted her for spreading so-called Western ideas, most notably the right to education for women. Yousafzai survived the assassination attempt and, undaunted, continues to serve as an activist for the rights of women and girls. In the wake of the attack, global leaders have joined her in promoting and emphasizing the importance of access to education in Pakistan. For example, United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education and former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown presented a petition to Pakistani President Zardari to ensure education for all.

Earlier this year, Yousafzai spoke before youth leaders at the United Nations and called for worldwide access to education for every girl. She was nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize and though she did not win, she became the youngest nominee ever.

At 16, Yousafzai is already an accomplished young woman and the world is looking forward to her next steps of activism and courage. Her story is unique, but she is also one of many activists around the world. She is a voice for many women in Pakistan, and her fearless actions have had an impact on the world. Her actions are a prime example of what raising your voice for an issue one is passionate about looks like. She has inspired others, including me, to raise their voices on issues that are near and dear to their hearts.

Although many activists are not threatened to the extent that Yousafzai was, it is important to remember that no matter where you come from, how old you are, or what your background is, your voice can have an impact on the world.

Back here in the United States, my generation has an advantage. When we want to raise our voices, modern technology is often available. No longer are we limited to writing to our local newspapers or giving speeches in our communities, because many of us also have access to social media websites, online news outlets, and forums where community speeches can go viral. It is easier now than ever to have our voices heard by a range of people around the world and for our messages to get across.

We can also host online discussions, which engage a broad audience, on websites like Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook. We are capable of meeting other activists online and connecting with them. We have the world at our fingertips and keyboards, although we may not always realize it. There are so many different ways for our voices to be heard with the growth of online resources.

People of my generation: Your voice was given to you, and it should be put to use. By speaking out, we inspire others to have their voices heard as well. One can inspire a fellow peer, another activist, classmates, or a whole generation. Online or offline, your voice does matter.

Malala showed our generation that in order to have a sustainable future, we need to raise our voices. Issues in education, health care, the environment, and other areas are at stake unless we each take responsibility to create change. And thanks to Malala we know change is possible, even with the efforts of just one girl at a time.

]]>http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/12/02/thank-you-malala-yousafzai-for-inspiring-us-to-activism/feed/1The Girl Effect: The Potential of Pakistani Human Rights Defender Malala Yousafazi and Others Like Herhttp://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/11/01/near-death-pakistani-human-rights-defender-malala-yousafazi-and-girl-effect-0/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=near-death-pakistani-human-rights-defender-malala-yousafazi-and-girl-effect-0
http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/11/01/near-death-pakistani-human-rights-defender-malala-yousafazi-and-girl-effect-0/#commentsThu, 01 Nov 2012 17:29:01 +0000Press reports of the attack on Malala Yousafazi are focused on religious extremism and the Taliban’s crushing hold on some regions in Pakistan. I want to focus not only on Malala but also on how educating girls, one by one, can change the world.

]]>The recent assassination attempt on Malala Yousafazi has been widely covered in the press as she struggles for life after emergency surgery. At the time of this writing, her condition has stabilized and she has been transported from her home of Pakistan to Britain for specialized medical care. Reportedly, she has even taken a few steps in the earliest steps of rehabilitation care.

Press reports of this attack are focused on religious extremism and the Taliban’s crushing hold on some regions in Pakistan. Other coverage is of Malala’s condition as she receives treatment while the world watches and waits for the news of recovery. I want to focus not only on Malala but also on how educating girls, one by one, can change the world.

Malala’s father is an educator, the director of her school—the commitment to education is a clear value of the family. With this energy and enthusiasm, Malala became a spokesperson for the right of girl’s education in Pakistan. Coming to the attention of human rights organizations like UNICEF, Malala inevitably was celebrated not only for her opinion (a child’s right) but also her ability to communicate the issues in eloquent English. When the Taliban announced girls’ attendance in school was abolished in the area of Pakistan where Malala lived, her life and struggle was followed and documented by journalists. Undoubtedly, it was this documentary process and expression of opinion on videotape that, in part, exposed Malala to extreme violence. The Taliban determined Malala to be a threat and her death was ordered to silence the child.

Bravely, Malala participated in a high-profile human rights delegation to her country, giving her own testimony to humanitarian observers. She also met with President Obama’s special envoy to the region. As a child working in these circles of politics and power, Malala declared that she eventually hoped to be a politician in her own country of Pakistan. She saw that route as the way to make a difference on a large scale, ultimately contributing to the social development of her community and country.

Her BBC “Diary of a Pakistani School Girl,” an anonymous blog penned by Malala, will inevitably receive more attention now than ever before. And Malala clearly has made major contributions to human rights discourse—particularly bringing attention to the girls and women of Pakistan. She wrote and spoke out about the right to education while recognizing that the Taliban could, at any time, kidnap and maim or kill her. However, with unbelievable courage she continued to speak out and fight for her right as a girl to be educated.

Malala is brave, without question. Her determination was such that living without her human rights was a greater burden than risking her life to speak out and express her opinion. Her courage was such that she acted on her right to pursue an education, going to school in secrecy while hiding her books and studying in shadows.

Now, as Malala struggles to recover her health, the question is: what can we all do to promote the right for girls and women to freely pursue an education? Frankly, the question is far too simple and the answer is very complex. However, some say that the most important humanitarian and development initiative on a worldwide basis is educating women and girls. And that does require us to think and consider how we can promote female-friendly transnational educational policies and development initiatives.

Sometimes called the “girl effect,” the idea is simple (see video above). Educate a girl and she not only grows personally, but can then share her knowledge and talents in a way that contribute to the quality of life of her family and community. This basic social development concept draws upon the idea that educated girls later become mothers who have healthier children. Many also engage in economic opportunities and take on leadership roles in their communities and greater society. Unleashing a tidal wave of the “girl effect” is without a doubt a critically important component to confronting global poverty, injustice, and oppression.

One critical answer to global inequality and improving quality of life lies in promoting human rights and eliminating the discrimination against vulnerable people—including roughly half the world’s population of girls and women who live in countries without fair and just educational opportunities! So, as we rally for Malala’s recovery let us not forget her courage and determination. To ultimately make a difference in Pakistan and elsewhere, the momentum of Malala’s human rights defense must be carried on. We each have a role in the tidal wave of the girl effect!

]]>http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/11/01/near-death-pakistani-human-rights-defender-malala-yousafazi-and-girl-effect-0/feed/0The Face of Evilhttp://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/10/12/face-evil/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=face-evil
http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/10/12/face-evil/#commentsFri, 12 Oct 2012 08:14:36 +0000I rarely use the word evil. But when I read that the Taliban had gunned down 14 year old Malala Yousafzai, and two other girls in Karachi, Pakistan I could not find another word.

]]>I rarely use the word evil. But when I read that the Taliban had gunned down 14 year old Malala Yousafzai, and two other girls in Karachi, Pakistan I could not find another word. The girls were not murdered, but Ms. Yousafzai remains in serious condition.

Malala, recipient of international recognition for her courage, is an extraordinary young woman who has spoken out about her passion for education of girls in defiance of the Taliban since she was 11. A spokesman for the Taliban confirmed that they attacked her because her support for the right to education is an ‘obscenity’.

If evil is an unholy combination of fear, power, and the arrogance of righteousness, then the safety of women all over the planet is in jeopardy. In some countries, those who would control women have to murder us to silence us. In our country, men raping and beating women every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year in every town, city, and state seems to do the job.